Otago and Southland schools have come up squeaky clean in the Auditor-general's latest audit of unlawful expenditure in schools.
They were among about 2450 schools and 18,000 trustees nationwide closely scrutinised in three audits which looked at whether payments to school principals for additional duties were lawful and in accordance with any relevant Ministry of Education requirements (2004); the extent to which schools complied with the law on financial matters (2005); and the progress the ministry had made on reducing the incidence of unlawful expenditure (2007).
The Auditor-general's Office recently reported the results which found 11% of secondary schools in New Zealand made unlawful payments to principals through the ministry's central payroll system and locally by schools in 2004.
Auditing staff were concerned that boards of trustees were not always complying with their legal obligations and some principals had received additional remuneration without ministry approval.
The 2005 report found most schools complied with the law, but the ministry needed to take further action to reduce the incidence of non-compliance, particularly by integrated schools where public funds had sometimes been used to provide financial support to private entities.
And the 2007 report followed up on the ministry's progress in implementing the recommendations made in the 2004 and 2005 reports.
This report also gave an account of unlawful remuneration to the principal of Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga school in Huntly, who received payments totalling $269,000.
"The total cost to the board, including tax and possibly penalties and interest on unpaid tax, could have been nearly $400,000," the report said.
While the ministry had taken action on some of the matters raised in the two previous reports, the Auditor-general found the ministry needed to consider further action to ensure public accountability by school boards for unlawful payments.
A spokeswoman for the Auditor-general said the audits of Otago and Southland schools had found no evidence of unlawful expenditure.
However, the Auditor-general would continue to keep the Ministry of Education and all schools under close scrutiny.
She said the office was again auditing principals' remuneration in secondary and composite schools, and this process was expected to be completed in mid-2010.
